NUFORC Sighting 43940

Occurred: 2001-10-14 03:30 Local
Reported: 2005-05-13 11:03 Pacific
Duration: 15 mins
No of observers: 2

Location: Chicago (downtown, on L. Michigan), IL, USA

Shape: Other
Characteristics: Lights on object, Left a trail

Brightly lit, digital-moving flying fish-shaped object with a crest of white-yellow fire emitting from its tail.

A friend and I were coming back from a coffee shop (late night midterm study session) and decided to walk along Lake Michigan to get back to our dorms, which were also on the lake. We were commenting on the low cloud cover and how strange it seemed, and were joking about it being Friday the 13th (though technically the 14th as it was after midnight). We heard a weird whirring digital sound, followed by the sight of an aircraft free-falling directly towards the lake.

My friend immediately perceived it to be a crashing airplane and instinctually climbing the rocks to dive down into the water (certified lifeguards do these sorts of things without thinking--I, on the other hand, just stood there like a dum-dum).

JUST AS IT WAS LITERALLY A FOOT AWAY FROM SPLASHING DOWN into the water, it recovered itself and swooped RIGHT over us....it was NOT a plane. It was most certainly a UFO. Its swooping motion was SO smooth, that it looked as though it were not at all recovering from a near-crash, but rather, it was as graceful and digital as possible. The sound could be be described as a digital piano chord, very pleasing, soothing and attractive.

Its shape can best be likened to a fish (picture a generic fish, like a goldfish) with its upper fin and back fin comprised of a yellowish-white glowing fire, which seemed to be propelling it much in the same manner that a fish's fins would. The body of the craft was totally visible to me, mostly because the craft was SO SO SO well lit, that it's lights drowned out the shape.

I did, however, get a really good look at the underbelly of the craft, which was an amorphous huge contact-lense shape, and violet in color. It was quasi-transparent, and if I had logic under my belt at that point, i would have made an effort to peer into the bottom, when it flew RIGHT over me.

Instead, I just started crying, both because I knew that what I was seeing was something to totally behold, and because I was instinctually scared, though it didn't have an ominous vibe at all.

After recovering from its seeming near-crash by swooping over us, it proceeded to head South--towards downtown, precisely following the scape of the lakefront. For instance, if there was a part of the beach which jutted out, its flight-path would follow.

From my awesome college campus, we could see the Eastern-edge of the downtown skyline, and we sight-followed it almost all the way there, and then lost track. My friend ran to his dorm to grab the phone, and we began calling 911, 411, 0--"all circuits busy." When we finally got through, the lady scoffed at us and hung up.

We went to stand out where we originally saw it crash through the clouds, thinking that was it, and then, at the same time, we both saw it--AGAIN!! It was coming back down North, again following the beachscape. I thought it was coming towards us, so we began running away, as silly as that may sound. While I was running, I was still looking back at it, and saw it come to the point where it had crashed through and then move VERTICALLY, very quickly and disappear above the very low cloudline almost exactly where it came through.

In addition to the fishlike shape with the fire-crest propulsion system (at least that is how I perceived it), here is more detail: The front of the craft had an upside-down "U" shaped lime-green, sequentially flashing (like chaser Christmas lights) nose, and the body had a number of sporadically placed lights that were hot pink, red, deeper purple...it was like a flying night-club, and obviously not meant to be inconspicuous, which really threw me off.

This sounds like a description of someone on acid, I know, but I need to ITERATE that my friend and I had just come back from a coffee shop, where we were studying. No alcohol or otherwise was at all involved.

Posted 2005-05-24